Departure Date!!

Everyone knows that old Chinese proverb "A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step." I'd like to amend that. If it's a boat trip, it starts with loading the boat! And before you can do that, you have to decide exactly when you are leaving.

In my case, I wanted hurricane season to be over (or almost over). I had made reservations months ago for a dock space in downtown Chattanooga during the first weekend of RiverRocks, Chattanooga's outdoor recreation festival. I decided it would be the perfect launch venue. So, I will bring my boat downtown for the weekend, enjoy the festival, and then take off on the morning of Oct. 3rd for salt water.


Agaliha at last year's RiverRocks Festival

So, with that date picked, I have been busy getting ready. I've off loaded everything from the boat that I DON'T need. And I've started loading everything that I WILL need. I was thrilled Monday when I loaded my collapsed inflatable dingy into the cockpit locker. It fit perfectly. I won't need this boat until I get to the Keys, so I don't want to tow it. The extra drag really makes a difference on your speed. I've decided to take my Honda portable generator, so I have stowed it under the helmseat. It might come in handy for recharging batteries.

I've decided on my sail inventory. In addition to my double reef mainsail, I will carry my 140% genoa, roller-furled on the headstay. I will use these sails for most of my sailing. Then, for sailing in light breezes with the wind, I am carrying an asymmetrical spinnaker (loaded in a snuffing sock). And for heavy winds, I am carrying a storm jib that snaps over the furled genoa. I can comfortably sail with this jib and a double reefed main in 30+ knots of wind. After that, I will be motoring under bare poles to shelter.

The next consideration is food. Since I'm hugging the coast for most of my trip, I don't need to pack huge stores of food. On the other hand, there aren't that many grocery stores on the river between here and Mobile! So, with Linda's help, I've been laying in supplies. Agaliha's freezer is pretty big, so I will load it with several dinners worth of frozen meat right before I leave. I'll also have some canned meals that I can prepare on the run if I need to eat with out stopping.

I've been doing all the little banking and insurance details that need to be done. For example, I upgraded my "towing insurance" to an unlimited package...just in case. I have activated and tested my satellite transponder so that I can send "I'm O.K" messages each night to Linda. I can also use it to send an emergency message (god forbid) to the Coast Guard. I've also ordered and loaded spare parts for the engine and toilet (top two priorities)!

Lots more detail than anyone wants to read, but maybe this helps everyone get a picture of what you have to do to prepare for a long boat trip.

Also, I've been calling my potential crew and giving them notice of when and where I might need them. That has been a great experience with everyone being supportive and flexible. So, I hope my next post will be on departure day!

Shakedown Cruise

As I was contemplating a long voyage in my boat, I decided last June that we should take a week long cruise to make sure that the boat (and I) were ready for a longer trip. We decided to sail the boat upstream to Watts Bar Lake, whose dam is 58 miles from our marina.

Linda and I loaded up the boat with fuel, food, water and liquor and threw off the dock lines at 9:15 in the morning. We turned into the 1.3 knot current and were happy to find a 12-knot southeasterly breeze. When the wind built we turned off the engine and enjoyed the reduced noise. As we passed Sale Creek I saw a squall developing so I reduced our sail area just before we were hit by a 25 knot gust. In addition to the propulsion it provided us with some relief from the heat that plagued all of 2011. The temperature dropped to 75 degrees, the coolest it had been in weeks.

We arrived at the lock at 6 p.m. and had to wait about a half hour for the lock to be emptied. We exited the lock into Watts Bar Lake at 7 p.m. We turned left into the Piney River and quickly found a good anchorage for the night. Linda had planned a beautiful dinner that we enjoyed as the sun set.





As the mist burned off of the water the next morning, we motored back into the main channel to head upstream again. We heard some old sailing friends on the VHF radio. We hailed them and made plans to raft up in a cove near Thief Neck Island. We took a shortcut known as the "Iron Hill Cut" that is only about 40 feet wide, but it had plenty of depth for our 5-foot keel.

We met up with our friends and soon there were four 36-foot sailboats in our raft-up, which never happens on our lake because there probably aren't four sailboats that big on the entire lake. We wedged in a dinner between multiple cocktail hours where many jokes and lies were told. After dinner, some of the more adventurous ones went swimming in the darkness of a moonless night. The conditions were perfect for stargazing and we saw more stars than we had seen in years. (It's hard to get a picture, but this time exposure will give you an idea.)




The next morning a thunderstorm broke up our raft-up earlier than we would have liked. So we headed to the the lake house of some friends and tied up at the dock for an overnight visit. The next day we sailed to Blue Springs Marina and were grateful for the shore power to run our air conditioning as the insidious heat returned. We we got up the next morning it was raining, so we enjoyed a lazy morning of music and reading. When the rain stopped, we started our trip back home. We anchored near the dam so that we could be the first boat through the lock when it opened at 7 a.m.




Linda whipped up another great meal (with a little help from me on the martinis and grilling). The next morning we entered the lock at 7:03 a.m. and were soon back on Lake Chickamauga, 58 miles from our marina.  The trip downstream was uneventful and relaxing.

One of the main reasons for the cruise was to get an accurate calculation of Agaliha's fuel consumption for my trip planning. It takes a long, linear trip (with half against the current and half with the current) to get an accurate read. Now I know that she burns .625 gallons per hour at 2,600 rpms and covers about 12 statute miles for every gallon. With a 20-gallon tank I have a range of 240 miles.

Our shakedown cruise was a great success and a whole lot of fun. We decided that we need to visit Watts Bar every year.